Lysander adopts six-month moratorium on new data storage facilities

Residents packed Lysander Town Hall on Loop Road and lined up outside Thursday night as the Town Board unanimously approved a six-month moratorium on new data storage facilities, a sharp short-term victory for neighbors worried about a proposed hyperscale data center in the Baldwinsville area.

Town Supervisor Kevin Rode told the crowd before the vote that the full board would back the moratorium, and the measure passed without opposition. The pause means no new applications for data storage facilities will be accepted by any town body with authority in Lysander, including the Town Board, Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals.

Town officials said the six-month window is meant to give Lysander time to study zoning, environmental impacts, public health, safety, infrastructure and community character. That makes the moratorium more than a symbolic slowdown. It freezes the local approval path while the town examines what a project of this scale could mean for roads, utility capacity, water use and the feel of nearby neighborhoods.

The fight centered on a proposed 300-megawatt hyperscale data center tied to the Ranalli family and Ranalli Super DC, LLC. Reporting has described the site as roughly 124 acres, or about 120 acres, with one account placing the land price at about $60 million and another estimating the project could cost between $4 billion and $8 billion. Separate reporting said Ranalli Super DC applied to NYISO in May 2025 to seek grid interconnection near Hencle Boulevard and Oswego Road, and the company is still waiting to hear whether it can connect.

Opponents pressed the town board on power demand, water use, noise, traffic, jobs, environmental impacts, public safety, infrastructure and property values. More than 350 people were reported at the May 7 hearing, and more than 1,800 residents signed a petition opposing the project.

The moratorium moved quickly through the town’s process. On April 16, the Town Board authorized the town attorney to draft it. On April 24, the board unanimously referred proposed Local Law No. 4 of 2026 to the Onondaga County Planning Board and the Lysander Planning Board, which recommended approval on April 27 before the public hearing at 6:30 p.m. at Lysander Town Hall.

The next six months will now determine whether Lysander writes stricter rules before any formal site plan application arrives. Onondaga County Legislator Maurice Brown has already turned the debate regional, warning that the county should prioritize safe drinking water and housing over corporate profit. In northern Onondaga County, where Micron has already intensified development pressure, Lysander’s vote became the latest test of how much industrial growth neighbors will accept, and on what terms.